Fractured Hearts Mended whole
by MacyBear17
Summary: Eliot and Parker, injured in a con, find time to bond over the holiday season... new beginnings for the new year :
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Hi there! I know, I know... I am supposed to be spending my days writing for and finishing my on going stories, but this little or should I say not so little plot bunny just wouldn't leave me alone. **_

_**This one is going to be a mostly fluffy multi chap fic featuring the Leverage gang, our main characters being Eliot and Parker... hope you enjoy and don't forget to review :)**_

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><p><strong>Chapter 01<strong>

Their roles in the con were done and they had just patiently been waiting for Hardison to give them the cue to get out of the building. Okay... maybe not patiently. We were talking about Eliot Spencer and Parker here. The hitter and thief were holed up in an out of the way closet with only their ear buds for communication with the rest of the team.

Neither of them was aware that something had gone wrong and that their comms were not working till the closet door opened abruptly and the duo were faced by half a dozen heavily armed guards who looked like they could crush Parker with their bare hands. With not even a second's notice, Eliot placed himself in such a way that his body completely shielded Parker's from any and all of the dozen odd guns that seemed to be pointed at them.

Parker had, at Eliot's request, undergone extensive training exercises and planning sessions with Eliot and Nate in the past few months. Nate had resolved to pair up the hitter and the thief on a regular basis, which had resulted in Eliot asking Parker and Nate for special sessions with the two of them. At first, Parker hadn't thought that all this was necessary, but as the sessions progressed and the understanding between the two of them went up to previously uncharted levels, Parker relented and gave in to the fact that Eliot almost always knew what he was talking about.

Nowadays, Parker and Eliot could almost read each other's minds when it came to work. Out of work, Eliot still thought that Parker was, in his own words, 'twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag'... he could never reconcile himself to someone who preferred to jump from the rooftops of tall buildings. He was a man who liked having his feet firmly on the ground thank you very much.

And Parker still found Eliot Spencer a great mystery. Even with her severely limited social skills and understanding of human interactions, she could feel that there was something not quite right with him. Maybe, in that way, they were the same, the two of them.

But at work, the success rate or should we say, retrieval rate of the pair had sky rocketed after their training sessions. Parker and Eliot could read each other's minute signals and body language as clearly as if each were speaking to the other. Once the two of them got in sync, it was almost impossible for them to go wrong. And it was thus, that Parker found herself reacting with almost no thought to the silent signal that she'd received from her partner. The two of them launched into a flurry of kicks and punches, managing to incapacitate most of the guards within the span of about thirty seconds.

Two of the guards had been especially difficult to handle, getting in their own punches, kicks and the occasional bullet into the pair of thieves. A blow from Eliot managed to disarm the both of them without leaving any lasting physical damage, but this gave Eliot the opening he needed to get the two of them away. Another silent signal later, Eliot and Parker found themselves sprinting away from the pair of super guards as fast as possible, running down a maze of corridors till they made it through a emergency stairwell, climbing up to the roof and using Parker's emergency zipline that she'd set up the previous day.

The hitch in that plan had been the fact that Parker had calculated only one person's weight while attaching the zip cord for her line. Now, as the situation called for additional weight and didn't give them any time to think over the problem, the two of them came to the unspoken decision of risking it and dealing with the consequences later.

A not-so-controlled descent, which bumped them quite hard into ledges and the side of the building a couple of times, the two of them were accosted by their team mates in Lucille 2.0 nearby and got in with just a minute to spare. The front of the building had filled with security guards and armed personnel the second Hardison peeled out of the lot, pushing Lucille 2.0 to the limit till they reached the loft.

Neither Eliot not Parker had even had time to give their physical conditions a second thought while outrunning the security guards inside the building... Just the mind numbing need to outrun anything and anyone that could cause them any damage. Now, as they heard Hardison's rambling apologies about some changing frequencies inside the building knocking out their comm systems and hearing Sophie's involuntary breath of shock, they turned to assess the damage on each other.

What they saw and finally allowed themselves to feel, had them cringing... both in physical pain and in defeat at being unable to protect their partner. In Eliot's case the pain of not protecting his thief properly was a lot sharper than the pain radiating from his shoulder because of a bullet wound. Parker too was feeling guilty about not having had Eliot's back... something quite unusual for her, even a couple of months before now.

Parker had never felt guilty about letting someone else down ever, because she'd always worked alone. Now, as a part of the Leverage Associates team and as part of the newer, smaller two-person team with the retrieval specialist, Parker was feeling an annoying deep seated churning kinda stomach ache, which she'd found out from Sophie was guilt.

Guilt, at not being good enough to out run the guards, at not having thought about needing a stronger cord for the zipline and almost getting the two of them killed due to it. If it had only been her life at stake, curiously, Parker might not have worried so much. Eliot was now her partner and his well being was a part of her responsibility too now... just as hers was in his hands.

He'd explained that concept to her early into their professional relationship and she hadn't needed him to explain it again. She understood... He was the hitter, the protector of the team... the guy who protected her, all the time. Whether they were one a job or not, Parker knew without a doubt that Eliot would come for her if she ever got into a situation where she needed his help. He might grumble about her craziness in getting into the situation in the first place, but he would definitely come for her. That was the one constant in Parker's life now, that she completely believed in.

Sometimes, there were days when the paranoia of her old life made it difficult for her to trust anyone... even the team. But even then, she trusted Eliot and the fact that he would keep her safe. It was a trust, that she knew even without having to ask, that was reciprocated in full amount by the retrieval specialist.

Eliot was a thorough professional and would never agree to working with someone he didn't trust or couldn't have faith in. Parker knew that Eliot trusted her to have his back when they went on retrieval missions and the amount of happiness she felt due to the knowledge had her questioning her judgement and her developing feelings towards her partner.

With the kind of close relationship that the two of them had developed over the past few months, it was inevitable that one of them atleast would start to feel this way. Parker had learnt early in her life that trusting another person with either her self or her feelings was probably the worst idea she could've ever had. And Eliot had had his own share of people leaving him behind or abandoning him in times of need, to really believe in the need to have a stable relationship with another person. But fate, it seems, had a slightly different plan for the two of them.

After getting to the loft, Hardison was sent to wrap up the rest of the job using data that Eliot and Parker had just brought while Sophie and Nate stayed behind with the twosome to help them take stock of their injuries. Sophie busied herself in bringing hot water and a couple of Eliot's well stocked first aid kits that were stored at Nate's loft expressly for this purpose. While Sophie got the supplies together, Nate was involved in helping Eliot and Parker take off jackets and shirts, taking stock of what their injuries were and deciding which ones were the most serious and needed attention first.

Eliot had a bullet graze on his right shoulder, a couple of cracked ribs, heavily bruised left hip and knee while Parker had suffered a couple of broken ribs, a sprained ankle and a cracked wrist. Leaving Sophie to help Parker wrap her ribs and aircast her wrist, Nate set about helping Eliot clean the bullet graze, which fortunately was just a surface wound. Deciding that the shallow but clean path traversed by the bullet didn't need to be stitched up, Nate and Eliot just applied some ointment and wrapped it up, along with wrapping up Eliot's ribs and icing his hip and knee. The fifteen minutes it took for the four of them to attend to the injuries of the thief and the hitter were traversed silently except for a few hisses of pain and a couple of low curses.

Leaving the pair to rest in the comfy couches and knowing that they would both appreciate being left alone to deal with the pain and the injuries, Nate and Sophie made sure they were comfortable with water and food nearby and left them. After being debriefed by Hardison on the wrap up and telling him to go home and rest up till the meeting tomorrow, Nate and Sophie decided to crash in Nate's bedroom for the night. Hardison checked up on the injured duo to find them sleeping comfortably if not peacefully, before silently locking up Nate's loft behind him while leaving to go to his own apartment above.

While Eliot and Parker hadn't been able to communicate much by way of conversation in the last twenty minutes, they'd managed to convey a whole lot to each other just by non-verbal signals. They'd become experts in reading each other's body language and that came into use off the field now, when they both wanted to know how the other was faring but didn't have the energy to ask or check. Slowly, with the painkillers coursing through their systems, the hitter and the thief slipped into an exhausted slumber, knowing that their partner was as comfortable as could be for the time being.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there it was. Please review your thoughts and ideas on how you liked the chapter and how you would like the story to go ahead... reviews are love:)**_

_**Lotsa luv and fortune cookies**_

_**Macybear**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: Hello there... back again with the second chapter. Hope you guys like it as much as you seem to have the first one... :)**_

_**Don't forget to review your thoughts and ideas about the story.**_

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><p><strong>Chapter 02<strong>

The next day dawned bright in the faces of the sore hitter and the still tired thief. It wasn't only from their injuries of the previous night that they suffered... the team had been literally flying from one job to the other for the last couple of months and as a result, all of them were running a bit ragged. Eliot and Parker felt it the worst as they usually had the most physically demanding jobs to perform.

So it was with a bit of relief that they reacted when Nate told the team during breakfast that they would be taking a personal break for the next couple of weeks. It was almost the third week of December and the mastermind had felt that this would be a good time for them to take a break and enjoy the holiday season a bit, maybe get in touch with their families or something like that.

Since Eliot wasn't in his usual condition, their breakfast that morning consisted of bagels and croissants from the nearby deli bakery along with some good gourmet coffee. Sophie had picked up the food and drinks, getting a heartfelt thank you from Eliot for her efforts. As they all sat around Nate's little breakfast bar cum dining table eating and sharing their thoughts, the Mastermind stood up and cleared his throat in a slightly important manner, making them all look up at him.

"Umm... How do you say this?... Well, We have all been going straight from one job to another, almost running cons continuously and traveling a lot over the last couple of months."

He paused a bit, to take in the rest of his team... they all looked genuinely tired and washed out, but they were paying attention.

"I see that it has left us all exhausted and quite in need of a break. So... If you are all okay with it, I would like to suggest using up these upcoming couple of weeks of the holiday season to rest, relax and recuperate... We will all meet up again on New Year's eve maybe?"

Though the last couple of sentences were meant for the whole team, they were delivered solely looking at the beautiful grifter, who looked in dire need of a bit of pampering... dark circles coupled with a pale complexion were not a particularly healthy look on her. Even the effervescent young hacker had grown quiet and listless over the past weeks. This team was in urgent need of a break and that was what he was going to make sure they got.

"So... what do you say?"

The team that had been so tired and wary of what he was going to say a minute ago, was now bright and bubbling with expectation. Sophie was already planning a quick shopping trip to Europe, not knowing that Nate had already booked them first class tickets to and from Paris, a suite at a luxury hotel and her own invite to a couple of exclusive designer's showings in Paris' chic boutiques... it would be a lovely surprise for the lovely grifter, Nate thought, while smiling beatifically at the rest of them.

Hardison was already fiddling with his PDA, booking himself into a couple of comic cons in the area and making plans to meet his Nana for the holidays... So that was one more person down. Hardison was a little immature at times, but he could be trusted to take care of himself for a couple of weeks. It was Parker that Nate was worried about.

Though she had been living alone most of her adult life, the little blonde thief had almost no idea about taking care of herself. Her idea of a good breakfast, when she got around to it, seemed to be a bag of fortune cookies followed by a can of cream soda. Nate shuddered to think of the consequences of leaving her alone and unsupervised for the coming fortnight.

But fortunately, it turned out that he didn't have to worry. Eliot was still recovering from his various injuries sustained over the last couple of months and had almost no immediate plans for the next few weeks. Though the hitter had a family, whom he was quite close to and who he visited on a quasi regular basis, it seemed that he wouldn't undertake the journey to Texas this time.

It went a long way towards soothing Nate's own frazzled nerves that the dependable hitter had offered to keep an eye on their thief. He'd taken one look at Nate's worried expression directed at Parker and shaking his head in a resigned manner, growled out that he would make sure she was alright till they all met up again.

Parker looked slightly mutinous at the automatic assumption of the team that she would probably kill half a dozen people and herself if left alone, but a raised eyebrow and a low, succinct threat from the hitter had shut her up effectively. Hmm... he would have to remember to ask what it was Eliot had threatened Parker with, if it seemed to have such an effect on the thief. But Nate was happy now that he knew that Eliot would be keeping an eye on their thief... not that he was grudging him the job... not at all. In fact, just looking in on Parker everyday was going to be quite a job for Eliot over the next two weeks.

Turning his attention back to Sophie, Nate interrupted her gleeful plans with a few short words of his own, which led to more happy rambling amidst a whole bunch of hugging and kisses... If this was the way she was going to react to surprises, Nate could see himself giving her a lot of those in the future.

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The morning was spent in a lot more pleasant manner after that, three of the five members of the team making quick plans for their time off and the other two thanking god that they would get some peace and quiet... or rather, Eliot thanking god for some peace and quiet and Parker already planning which museums and private collections she'd wanted to visit (read steal from) over the holidays.

Parker was by nature a happy person... there were a lot of things- small, simple things that made her happy. The feel of a crisp, green banknote, the sparkle of a 5 carat rose cut diamond, the smell of an old Egyptian statue of a half naked man with square feet and a bird face that Nate called 'Ra' or the sound of an electronic deposit box lock clicking open... she was preparing to indulge all her senses this holiday season and she'd already put down plans for more than half her planned heists. She'd been working out how to get into the Boston Museum of Art and Antiquities again after they'd switched security systems on her again when this job had happened.

Now that she was injured, she would definitely have to change her plans to fit her condition, but there was no way she wasn't going ahead with her plans. She had her eyes on the sweet smelling bird head guy in Gold. He was gonna be in the Egyptian exhibit only till the end of the year and she just had to get him... he would look very nice sitting in her vault next to the jade Buddha she'd stolen from China and the statue of the Mayan river goddess carved out of an uncut ruby.

She was just going through the blueprints of the museum in her head and had just found out a loophole in the security. But of course, the low, slightly evil laugh she'd let out got the attention of the ever alert hitter and seconds later, he was in her face, his most growl-y expression on, his low, slightly threatening, gravelly voice wrapping around her like a comfortable blanket.

Parker knew she should ideally be slightly scared of him right now, be somehow, she couldn't bring herself to feel that emotion. Rather, she was feeling rather comforted and secure now, the prospect of being around the solid, protective hitter making her relax like she hadn't in a long time.

"I know that look Parker... and let me tell you something now. You are not pulling any job till the rest of the team gets back by New Year. You're gonna be my responsibility this time and I am not gonna be happy if you're not completely fit by the time we get our next job... is that clear?"

It was clear from his expression and the tone of his voice that he was going to be immovable in this matter and sighing, Parker shook her head yes. She knew which battles to pick and this definitely wasn't one. You didn't pick battles around the hitter... it was much better for all of their sakes that she let him get away with whatever he wanted. She could always go around him or sneak out for a side trip later, she thought satisfied-ly as she settled back to listen to the others excitedly making plans.

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The next day saw the whole team trooping to the airport in Eliot's shiny black Hummer. They'd all known that Eliot always drove a truck... a normal flatbed Ford that he'd had for like half a dozen years maybe, and somehow assumed that that was the only vehicle he owned. Parker of course, knew about Eliot's collection of motorbikes and Choppers, but even she hadn't known about his extensive collection of cars. Grinning at their reactions to the top of the line Carbon Black Hummer H3X he drove in to Nate's garage that morning, Eliot helped the group load on their luggage into the spacious boot before ushering them all in, so that they could get going on their journey.

Even Parker had been asked by Eliot to pack her bags and deposit them with the others in the back. Though she had no idea why, she'd done it. And quite well if she was to go by Eliot's approving look at the single medium sized duffel bag full of her clothes and supplies, compared to his pained grimace at the sight of Sophie's full set of 6 matched pieces of monogrammed luggage packed for the same period of two weeks.

Hardison's flight to LA was the first one off and after hugging it out with all of them, looking like he was going off to war rather than going to some crazy comics convention, he'd left. Then it had been Nate and Sophie's turn, their flight departing from a different terminal as theirs was an international one. They'd also left a couple of hours later in a flurry of goodbye's and promises to keep in touch, leaving behind a waft of Sophie's floral perfume with a slight hint of Nate's morning 'keep up with Sophie' drink of bourbon.

After sending off the rest of their team, Eliot and Parker were left alone at the airport, walking... or rather, hobbling back to his shiny, big SUV. The cracked ribs were still giving him some trouble but the bruising on his knee and his hip were quite alright by now. The bullet wound was recovering at a slower pace than he liked but he was just thankful it was a simple graze. It was quite amusing to watch Parker hobble at his side, still not quite used to having to use an elbow crutch to move. The kinetically inclined thief was finding the restriction on her movements quite a challenge, if he was to go by the litany of muttered curses she seemed to be extremely proficient in.

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Eliot had given the thief an elbow crutch that day at Nate's loft, telling her to use it till she could put any weight on her ankle. At first Parker'd protested volubly, but one test step on her heavily sprained ankle had put paid to all of her protests. After that, she'd meekly allowed the hitter to fit a walking cane kind of crutch to her bicep, tightening it around her arm so that it wouldn't slip out of her hand.

Having to use a crutch sucked... but oh!... the fun she'd had moving her arm and the crutch about after that... priceless. She made sure she'd poked Eliot atleast a couple of dozen times with it. Hardison and Nate hadn't gone scot free either, but their injuries were more due to her inexperience with the crutch than with deadly intent as in the case of the hitter.

The time she'd accidentally extended the crutch right into the path of the hacker who'd been carrying a big jug of his favorite orange soda, causing him and the jug to go sprawling onto Nate's new beige carpet would always be one of her favorite moments for the rest of her life. The visual of a soda covered Hardison and a horror struck Nate and Sophie gazing on while Eliot cracked up in the background without meaning to, was firmly etched in her brain as being one of the funniest moments of her recent life.

As they reached the car... if she could it call it one, Parker'd never known that Eliot was like all other guys when it came to cars. Sure, he didn't go on and on about the specifications of his baby like some of the guys she'd gone out with did and he definitely didn't call it by a girl's name or anything creepy ike that, but he was definitely proud of it and had completely enjoyed the team's reactions to his new car.

This one wasn't small and speedy like the Ferrari that Hardison had brought during the Iceman job, but it was sturdy and spacious... built for security as well as speed, rather than just flashy looks and racing tracks. Parker immediately made up her mind to steal one for herself... she would ask Eliot where she could get one of these and try to work it into her Boston jaunt.

That decided, she relaxed back into the deep, cushy leather seats, enjoying the luxury that existed inside the monster of a vehicle and tried to make herself comfortable while doing her best not to poke Eliot with the crutch again. In the time she took to work out the fact that she wanted a car like this for herself and got comfortable in her seat, they'd pulled out of the airport lot and were on the highway leading away from the city... and away from her warehouse.

"Eliot... you're going in the wrong direction. My warehouse is the other way"

"I know.." he smirked

Oh she hated it when he smirked in that superior fashion... like he knew something that she didn't.

"What?"

"I said... I know."

This time, he repeated it slowly, as if talking to some mentally retarded person... or thief. Okay... she was going to lose it and hurt him very soon if he didn't explain like... right now.

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"Where are we going Eliot?"

Oh man... he liked listening to that annoyed tone in her voice. This was payback for all the times she'd annoyed the heck out of him.

Eliot was in quite a nice, relaxed mood and it was reflecting in his playful teasing of the thief. Too bad she wasn't quite in the mood for it. The sprain in her ankle was throbbing, the crutch uncomfortable and the ace bandage around it incredibly itchy.

"E-liiotttt..."

She almost growled in frustration and something clenched inside the hitter's body at the low, gravelly tone of Parker's voice saying his name like that. Hurriedly throwing the images running fast and hard through his brain at that, Eliot returned his concentration to the road, willing his body into calmness again.

"We're goin' to my place outside the city..."

His voice came out gruff, rougher than he'd intended it to be and it had the effect of silencing Parker, who'd been on the verge of launching her crutch at him in frustration. Long seconds of silence later, she turned to him and asked in a softer, unsure tone

"Why?"

"Look Parker... I jus' need some time to relax and rest up before the team gets back okay?... It's been quite some time since i took a break and I intend to use these two weeks to get that break."

He glanced at her for a second to see that she was listening intently and continued

"I have a farmhouse outside the city that I use when I get some long weekends off or a break between jobs... It'll help me relax and I figured that since you're also injured and need rest... and since Nate wanted me to keep an eye on you, I am gonna take you to my house for the two weeks and accomplish both things at the same time. Both of us will relax and I'll get to keep an eye on you..."

"Well... you could've told me that before." Parker groused slightly before settling back into her seat.

Eliot was a little surprised at the fact that she'd given in so easily. He'd expected atleast a big argument at being almost kidnapped like this and worst case scenario, he'd had visions of a crazy Parker trying to jump out of his car in the middle of the highway while they were traveling at around hundred miles an hour. But he was not going to look a gift horse in its mouth. If Parker was acting okay with this plan, they hell yeah!... he was going to run with it.

Parker, on the other hand was quite excited. She was finally going to see Eliot's real home. Of course, she knew where Eliot lived in the city... but that apartment was as much his home as her warehouse was hers. They lived there, but it wasn't theirs. Both of them had nothing more than what was necessary for a daily life at their residences. While Parker didn't have any other 'homes'... she'd never wanted one and actually didn't quite know the difference between a house and a home yet... but she knew that Eliot had a place where he disappeared to most weekends but hadn't gotten around to following him out of the city yet.

Now she was being taken there by Eliot himself and it was all she could do to not communicate her excitement by jumping around in her seat. As it was, she couldn't stop squirming due to the itchy bandage on her ankle and the ungainly aircast on her wrist... she didn't want to make it known to Eliot just how much she was looking forward to this experience.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there it is... Chapter 02 all done and Chapter 03 in the works. **_

_**This was more of a filler chapter... but I am gonna tell you guys right here, right now that I intend this fic to be a low angst, more fluff type of fic... So better be prepared to 'awww' at the cuteness in the coming chapters.. :) :)**_

_** And don't forget to review. More reviews mean a happier Macybear... and a happier Macybear means faster and cuter uploads :)**_

_**Lotsa luv and fortune cookies**_

_**Macybear**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: Hi!... So here's the next chapter of this fic... This whole thing is going to be pretty low angst and mostly fluffy... but that doesn't mean that i can;t put in little nuggets of anxiety here and there. :P **_

_**So enjoy and don't forget to review your thoughts and ideas... :)**_

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><p><strong>Chapter 03<strong>

Whatever she had been expecting to see, this wasn't it. This, as Parker'd so eloquently put it, seemed to be a beautiful low, country style ranch house situated at the end of a long driveway with what seemed like real fruit trees behind it, and lots n lots of green, rolling pastures surrounding it. Of all this, Parker's eyes skidded to a stop at the paddocks at a distance and stables round the side of the house.

Okay... maybe agreeing to come with Eliot wasn't such a great idea. She'd forgotten that the hitter had a liking for the great, stamping, murderous beasts everyone called 'horses'. And there seemed to be at least half a dozen of them here

As if sensing the cause of her sudden hesitation, Eliot turned and murmured to her

"Don't worry Parker... All my horses are stabled and the stables have doors, with locks on them... okay? The horses are not gonna hurt you until you hurt them. Now come on... let's get inside"

Following the hitter in at a slightly more cheerful pace, the blonde thief came to a standstill again at entering the house. Again, this wasn't what she had expected. To be completely honest, she didn't know what she had expected his house to be like, but this wasn't it.

This wasn't a bare bones, sparse living space, nor was it an overly decorated picture perfect house... This was a house that seemed to be cared for, well loved and definitely lived in. The furniture was all big, comfortable pieces, some of which, like that brown cushy chair that she wouldn't have thought the kind Eliot would buy for his house. The living area at least, wasn't overly decorated, just one or two understated art pieces... a couple of original paintings of... horses (shudder) and a fully functional massive fireplace.

Stepping in further at the hitter gesture to follow him, Parker saw that the house was in an open plan, most of the single floored home consisting of a huge single room, which housed the living, dining rooms and the huge, elaborate kitchen. There were a couple of doors leading away, and Eliot was on his way through one of them when Parker finally decided to follow.

Through the door seemed to be a big bedroom done up in shades of blue, with a queen sized bed and cheerful bright blue curtains and sheets.

"Okay Parker... This is going to be your room for these couple of weeks. There's an attached bath through this door and you have your own closet with it. You can maybe unpack your stuff inside there..."

The hitter glanced at her with a little bit of amusement in his eyes before continuing

"The vent next to your feet leads right into the kitchen and all the way through to the living room and the window frames are made with reinforced steel so you can attach your ziplines and whatnots..."

At the thief's excited squeal, he however hastened to warn her that until she was fully healed, she shouldn't be jumping or rappelling, and turned his most threatening glare on her for additional effect.

"So until I tell you you're fine, no crawling through vents or jumping from windows or roofs okay?"

Pouting childishly, but knowing that if she didn't give in to his rules, Eliot might well find ways to enforce them to his liking, Parker quickly nodded, while making it amply known that she wasn't happy about the conditions. Besides, Eliot didn't need to know everything she was planning... With a slightly evil smile on her face, the thief trooped after him, out of the room that was to be hers back into the hallway.

The next fifteen minutes were spent walking, or rather hobbling slowly around the rest of the house as Eliot showed her what each room was and let her get acquainted with where everything was in the house. Parker had been surprised by a lot of things she'd learnt about the hitter that day.

For example, no one in the team had known that Eliot Spencer loved to read almost as much as he loved to cook. The presence of a huge and extremely well stocked library in his house was a revelation to her. Parker's perception of him as a person was changing subtly with each new things she managed to discover about him, and she found herself rather liking this slightly different, more rounded person that Eliot was becoming in her eyes.

Parker spent the rest of the day exploring inside the house, careful not to go out anytime without Eliot next to her... she didn't want to come face to face with a horse under any circumstances. While Parker familiarized herself with each and every nook and cranny of the house, Eliot busied himself with a long overdue workout, a shower and then making some of Parker's favorite Stir-fried noodles for dinner.

It was as if the two of them had been through this routine dozens of time before, the way they went through the whole cleaning up and getting ready for bed processes. Eliot hadn't wanted Parker to tax herself but she'd been insistent on being allowed to help him clean up after they finished dinner, so the two of them had washed and dried dishes, cleaned and wiped down the kitchen counters before turning in for the night.

Parker found that Eliot's master bedroom was down the corridor from hers and that, somehow made her feel more secure than less... a fact that she still couldn't understand. She'd never felt safe with other people around, especially at night. Most nights, when the team were forced to spend them in a hotel or at Nate's loft, Parker never slept basically because she never could go to sleep with someone else around... she never felt safe enough to. But tonight, Parker knew that she would be sleeping, and comfortably at that. Stupid, unpredictable things they were... these emotions. So difficult to understand.

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Eliot, on the other hand was a bit nervous about the whole thing. This would be the first time he was sharing his home with someone, someone of consequence in his life... and he was worried about his mind's reactions to having someone else in the house. Everyone in the team knew that Eliot slept only 90 minutes a day, but till now no one had asked him the reason behind it, choosing to consider it one of his quirks, which all of them had. Till now, no one had been in a position to know that Eliot managed to sleep only that much every night because of a reason.

Through his 30 odd years, Eliot Spencer had seen and done much more than any average Joe could even begin to consider. And being in the line of work he was in, Eliot had seen more death and destruction than any one else, even in the team. Most of it he managed to shrug away as part of his job, but there were some cases that stuck with him...

Most of the times he'd been working under Damien Moreau's orders were still etched in his brain with acid. The crimes he'd committed, the lives he'd taken, the families he'd broken... so many things that he hadn't ever brought himself to face, just shutting himself off when faced with a job like that, arose to larger than life size in his regular like clockwork nightmares.

Rarely had he been able to manage more than four hours of sleep without being woken from slumber by some or the other extremely disturbing memory... He'd also never let himself sleep when someone else was around. This night was definitely going to be interesting one way or the other.

Both Parker and Eliot lay awake in their respective bedrooms for almost an hour before the little thief succumbed to her pain medication and the physical exhaustion from a tiring day. Eliot lay awake for much longer before slipping into an uneasy doze. Everything was quiet and calm in the Spencer household for the next couple of hours as both the thief and the hitter rested.

At around two in the morning however, Eliot was rudely wakened from his sleep by noises. Going from asleep to fully awake in barely a second, the hitter was up on his feet and running to Parker's bedroom before he'd had a chance to think. Parker's screams and agonized yells were echoing around the still and silent house, sounding that much more terrifying to the hitter for the absence of other sounds.

In seconds, Eliot had the door open and ran into the bedroom, only to come to a screeching halt when he found Parker's slim form clad in an oversized t-shirt thrashing around on the bed, tears streaming from her tightly closed eyes, her hands fisted and her body taut with tension. Her yells and screams had toned down to mere whimpers and occasional sobs as she cried in the throes of her nightmare.

While relieved that it was nothing more than a nightmare that plagued Parker, he'd almost been expecting to see an intruder getting ready to kill her or something, Eliot couldn't just stand by and watch as she obviously relived some traumatic experience in her dreams. He hadn't decided what he would do yet, when he heard her speak garbled words in a decidedly childish voice. What she said gave him the chills... Eliot'd known that Parker had been in the foster care system for most of her early life and he had some idea that she hadn't had a nice or even normal childhood, but he'd never thought it might've been this bad.

Parker was whimpering out for somebody to stop... that it was hurting her. Her body was wracked with spasms as she twisted and turned in attempts to avoid getting hurt once more but from her sobs it seemed as if her attempts had been ineffectual... the knowledge that someone had laid hands on his little thief when she was a mere child and from the sounds of it, treated her very badly, made the blood boil in Eliot's veins. The need to just go out and pound that person into a grease spot on the concrete was so over powering that the hitter found his fists clenching and his body tensing up in preparation for a physical confrontation.

But that was not his priority now. He first had to take care of Parker... She was still in the throes of her nightmare, kicking and screaming as whatever was happening in her dream hurt and scared her again. Eliot was at her side in a second, gathering her fists in his hands, holding them softly in front of her as he pulled her entire body into his. His one hand held hers while the other delved into her golden waves, stroking and soothing her as he murmured comforting nonsense into her ear.

As he knew very well from experience, it was of no use to try to wake her up. Making sure she knew she was in a safe place and nothing could hurt her there was much more important for her to get out of her nightmare. Now, as he spoke softly in her ear and continued stroking her hair with a light touch, his hard, muscled body curled protectively around her softer, slim one, slowly, but surely, Eliot felt the thief relax. Her screams of terror quietened down to whimpers and finally came to a complete stop. Her taut body relaxed slowly, the tension bleeding out of her with every soft word he uttered.

As her fists unclenched unconsciously, he slowly let go of her hands to raise his palm to her face, softly brushing the tears away from her cheeks, his broad, callused fingers gently soothing the frown lines off her forehead. Without gaining consciousness, the thief seemed to realize that she was not in danger anymore. Somehow she seemed to sense that she was safe and slipped once more into a deep sleep. As soon as Eliot felt her relax completely, he realized that he had no more reason to be here and that it would be awkward for both of them in the morning if he were found in her bed when they'd retired to different rooms at the beginning of the night.

Gently untangling their bodies without waking her, Eliot stood, looking down into her now relaxed face. Without the distraction of her vivacious personality, she looked like an angel in her sleep. Her features softened by slumber, her body relaxed and her golden hair spread across the blue pillows, she made such a beautiful picture that Eliot found himself leaning back down to her without conscious thought. For once, he didn't try to stop himself, didn't try to do the right thing.

Softly, he brushed his lips against her forehead, pressed a soft kiss to the tip of her nose and another sweet kiss at the corner of her mouth whispering 'Good night darlin'... sleep well' before he could get himself to walk back out. As he turned to leave, the hitter heard the thief stir a bit, turn over and settle herself again. Heaving a sigh of relief, he was just about to step out of the room when he heard her sigh something and her face settled into a small, happy smile... The word that escaped her mouth had the hitter freeze in his tracks before turning to make sure she was still asleep. Turning back after looking in on her, Eliot finally got back to his room, this time with a wide smile on his face.

Parker's little sigh had almost permanently set a wide grin on his face. Happy thoughts assailing his brain, Eliot went to sleep again, this time with his mind stuck on what he'd heard from the thief... If he hadn't heard it himself, he might not've believed it, but as it was, he'd heard it clearly...

Parker had whispered his name... she'd sighed out his name in her sleep before smiling and settling back into slumber. With that knowledge wrapped around his heart, the hitter settled down for the night, sure this time, that he would be able to sleep uninterrupted by nightmares because he would be too busy dreaming about a certain blonde haired crazy little thief that was quickly making a special place for herself in his heart and his life.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there it is... Hope all of you liked it as much as all the other chapters... :)**_

_**Review your thoughts and ideas please... I appreciate all kinds of feedback. **_

_**Next chapter might be up a little late cuz I am finding it quite difficult to keep going back and forth between the fluff of this fic to the angsty drama of my other fic 'Getting Over It'... So I might finish that up or at least give it some sort of a decent head start before I get back to this... Again, this is just the plan... might not happen the way I want it to... it all depends what story my flighty muse picks to stick to... :P**_

_**Anyways, thank you for all your support and please keep reading and reviewing**_

_**Lotsa luv and fortune cookies**_

_**Macybear**_


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